An entity may have one or more unique identifiers assigned to it. One or
more of these unique identifiers may be machine generated, with automatic
verification of uniqueness, perhaps with no recognizable semantic
significance.
Some unique identifiers that have been discussed, such as code list value
(along with code list owner) and classification scheme identifier, can be
quite useful and should be encouraged. Many such identifiers may exist for
the same semantic entity. For example, a semantic entity might be
represented in multiple code lists (with differing code values) within and
across multiple maintaining organizations, and might also be represented as
stand-alone entities in these and other organizations. In each such
representation, the semantic entity so identified might in fact be exactly
the same.
For each semantically unique entity, at least one globally unique identifier
is essential, and that identifier must in some manner provide access to the
metadata that defines the semantic properties of the entity, either
directly, by reference to another entity, or by a combination of the two.
By the way, I contend that every code list value represents a separate
semantic entity which in turn has its own globally unique identifier, so
that it can provide access to its unique semantic properties. That does not
require that every code list value be representable as a separate syntactic
element, though it may well be desirable to provide such representation for
some code list entities.
For ebXML registered entities, I recommend that a globally unique machine
generated identifier be provided in the registration process and be
accessible through the registry via a well known metadata field. The sole
intent of this unique identifier should be to provide access to metadata
associated with the entity. Other unique identifiers may also be created by
the registry process or provided to the registry process. These other
identifiers may provide identification intent beyond that of access to
metadata. For example, an intent of such an identifier may be
classification or human recognition. Within some such other intents,
multiple identifiers may exist for the same entity. For example, in a
classification scheme an entity may appear in more than one classification
area; in a human recognition scheme multiple identifiers may exist to
satisfy the human needs.
Cheers,
Bob Miller
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